NVIDIA: Intel not able to make Larrabee without our patents

DigiTimes had a talk with NVIDIA General Manager of MCP Business, Drew Henry, about the countersuit the company filed yesterday against Intel for breach of contract regarding a cross-licensing agreement between the two parties.

Henry claims Intel has caused alarm among NVIDIA's partners, which are asking themselves if its worthwhile to continue to invest in NVIDIA chipset-based motherboards if Intel won't allow NVIDIA to make chipsets for future processors. He says sales are hit, and that Intel is depriving consumers of choice in the market.

An interesting part of the countersuit is that NVIDIA may want to terminate Intel's license to NVIDIA's patent portfolio. Henry commented Intel continues to benefit from its side of the cross-licensing agreement, he believes Intel is using NVIDIA IP in IGP products and that Intel wouldn't be able to develop the Larrabee graphics processor without making use of NVIDIA's patent portfolio.

Meanwhile, Henry pointed out that Intel continues to benefit from its side of the cross-licensing agreement. Nvidia believes that Intel is using Nvidia IP in currently shipping IGP products and the company also believes that Intel would not be able to develop its Larrabee graphics chips without making use of Nvidia's IP portfolio, said Henry. Henry went on to say that, Nvidia may ask the courts to terminate Intel's rights to these IPs in the event that it is found that Intel is in beech of contract.

The reporter also asked what NVIDIA's backup plan is in the event that they lose the suit. Henry said that NVIDIA would figure out ways to bring other products tot he market, like the Ion 2 platform which uses VIA Nano processors.